Pusoy
The Filipino take on 13-card poker: all cards dealt at once and sorted into a 5-5-3 arrangement, with its own suit-ranking conventions distinct from the Chinese original.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Pusoy (sometimes called "Filipino Poker") is dealt like Chinese Poker: each player receives all thirteen of their cards at once, face down, with no further cards dealt during the hand.
Arrangement: each player privately arranges their thirteen cards into three hands — a 3-card "front" hand and two 5-card "middle" and "back" hands — then reveals all three simultaneously once everyone is ready. As in Chinese Poker, the back hand must rank equal to or stronger than the middle hand, and the middle must rank equal to or stronger than the front; failing this ordering results in a "dead hand" that scores the worst possible result against every opponent.
The distinguishing feature of Pusoy as played in the Philippines is its suit-ranking convention (used to break ties and determine deal order in related Filipino card games): spades rank highest, followed by hearts, diamonds, and clubs lowest — a convention borrowed from other Filipino card games like Pusoy Dos (a separate shedding-style game in the same family) and not universal across all Chinese Poker traditions.
Scoring proceeds as in Chinese Poker: each player's front, middle, and back hands are compared individually against each opponent's corresponding row, with the better hand in each row winning agreed points, plus bonus "royalty" points for especially strong hands.
Strategy notes: The core skill is identical to Chinese Poker — balancing front-hand strength against back-hand strength without fouling — but Filipino tables often play with slightly different royalty bonus conventions than Western Chinese Poker tables, so it's worth confirming the local scoring scale before playing seriously.
Common house rules
Suit ranking for ties and deal order
The spades-hearts-diamonds-clubs ranking is a Filipino card-game convention used to break ties and determine who deals first; tables unfamiliar with it should agree explicitly since it's not universal to Chinese Poker as played elsewhere.
Don't confuse with Pusoy Dos
Pusoy Dos is a separate, very different Filipino card game (a shedding/climbing game similar to Big Two or President) that happens to share a name and suit-ranking convention with Pusoy — confirm which game the table means before dealing.
Royalty bonus scale varies by table
As with Chinese Poker and Open-Face Chinese Poker, the exact bonus points for strong hands in each row vary by house rule and should be agreed and written down before playing.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Chinese Poker
The original, simultaneous-deal version of Chinese Poker: all thirteen cards dealt at once, then arranged into three hands (top, middle, bottom) and scored against every opponent.
Learn the rules →Open-Face Chinese Poker
A very different kind of poker: no betting rounds at all. Thirteen cards are arranged into three hands (top, middle, bottom), scored against each opponent's three hands.
Learn the rules →Cheat
Also called I Doubt It or Bullshit — a pure bluffing game where players discard face-down while lying about what they played, and others may call the bluff.
Learn the rules →Crazy 4 Poker
A Shuffle Master casino game where players make the best four-card hand from five cards, with the option to bet up to 3x their ante if holding a pair of aces or better.
Learn the rules →